Washington: further help for Syrian opposition is possible

Washington is weighing what further help it can give the Syrian opposition rebels, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said.

“We are going to carefully consider what more we can do,” Mrs Clinton told a Washington forum, saying the United States was constantly evaluating the situation and adding: “I’m sure we will do more in the weeks ahead.”

“If this were a straightforward challenge I think we would all have reached a conclusion and have unified behind exactly what we are going to do, and how to do it,” she told a conference organised by Foreign Policy magazine.

But she stopped short of saying whether the United States would recognise the newly-formed Syrian National Coalition, which is seeking to oust President Bashar al-Assad, as the sole representative of the Syrian people.

“For a long time the Syrian opposition was not able to present anything resembling a unified, coherent vision for what a future post-Assad Syria could look like.

“We have been deeply involved in helping to stand them up,” she said of the new body which emerged from talks in Qatar, after much US prodding.